Azura sat in her chair brooding. She been doing that for the past three days, ever since she gave her speech. Kin killing kin. Betrayal. It hurt far more than she let on. She was proud to be a kin. If anything she always been embarrassed by her human half. She had thought most humans were un-trust worthy. Violent. Creatures driven by greed. Now… were kin any different? She’d been fooling herself. That thought sent her mood down a few more notches. That was when a pair of arms with white fur encircled her, followed by a plop on her head. Azura tilted her head up to see her mother resting her chin on her head.

“You’re no fun when you’re a gloomy puss.”

“I’m not a gloomy puss, mom.” It came out as a pout.

Her mother just looked at her expectantly. Azura sighed, knowing full well she could never deceive her mother.

“It just that…” Azura began, but stopped. She found it difficult to articulate what she felt.

“Disappointing,” Coralline said. Azura nodded. That was it exactly. Her anger had faded after the first day. She still planned to put the deer-kin bastard down if she ever ran across him, but the disappointment of the betrayal was far harder to overcome.

Her mother sighed. Instead of answering she picked up Azura and carried her to their small sofa. Azura could have stopped it any time, but she lacked the will to do so. She let herself be laid down while Coralline guided her head to her lap. Once settled she began massaging Azura’s cat ears with skilled fingers as she spoke.

“I feel the same. All my life the kin have supported each other. Now we have to be careful with whom we extend friendship too.”

Azura found herself relaxing as her mother worked her sensitive ears.

“But you still have good friends. The bonds you’ve made will endure. So… stop being such a gloomy puss and go see your friends. I’m sure they need help figuring out their cultivation and it’ll cheer you up. Once you get back I’ll have some fish ready.”

Azura was already feeling better when the magic word of ‘fish’ was said. Instantly all the gloom was whisked away as if it was never there.

“Good idea!” Azura said hopping to her paws, dashing toward the door. Fish and friends… what else could one desire?

“Oh, by the way you have fleas…” Her mother called right as she reached the door.

“WHAT!?”

“I don’t have fleas…” Azura muttered to herself as she neared Gerald’s forge.

She was sure she didn’t, but the desire to start scratching permeated her mind. Her mother was just messing with her… probably… she would ask Elise to check later.

Uncharacteristically there was no sound coming from the forge. Gerald must be focusing on his cultivation. Azura nodded sagely to herself. No doubt a single drop of her vast wisdom would allow her friend to reach new heights.

The door was closed but Azura immediately opened it without knocking. She couldn’t deny her friend from her sagely presence.

“Gerald! I’m here to helllllppppp….” Azura gaped at the scene her voice trailing off. Her eyes comically wide. “Ahhh… I see you’re busy… I’ll… just… yeah…” Azura backed away closing the door.

Hamal! Yes! Hamal surely needed her help! Immediately in fact. She wasn’t running away from the scene. NO! Hamal was lost without her! Quickly she must rescue the rat-kin from his own folly! She dashed off trying not to think about what she had just seen.

“God’s above…” Elise muttered reaching for her shirt. At least she still had her pants on. Although if Azura had arrived five minutes later that wouldn’t have been true. Still she'd been straddling Gerald when Azura arrived.

“She had to find out sooner or later,” Gerald said rubbing her back. Elise stopped groping for her shirt. Instead she pressed to her chest to the bear-kin enjoying the feel of his furred fingers. Elise sighed and began groping other things.

“What should we do now?” Gerald asked.

“Isn’t that obvious?” Elise said standing up. She did a quick jog to the door where she barred it. Then she promptly tossed her trousers followed by her panties on the floor.

“We continue, you savage beast!” She giggled as she pranced around the room, the kin in hot pursuit. He caught her only moments later…

Hamal was focusing on the shadows around him attempting to control them. So far, all his attempts ended in failures. It had taken days to learn how to cultivate the shadows around him. It was slow, but he was confident in time he could do it passively. Right now, it was barely more effective than absorbing the ambient mana. With that problem in hand, he was attempting the next logical stage of his training… controlling the shadows directly. Azura could control blood, so he should be able to control shadows. The only trouble was that so far, he couldn’t. Perhaps he could use her advice. As if summon by his need Azura burst into his home. She looked wild eyed around the place. Her gaze passed over him twice before settling on his cross-legged figure.

“Oh, thank the god’s of below, you’re not naked.”

Hamal just blinked at her. Did he hear her right?

“Err, umm, nothing. I saw nothing. I was just worried about you. Yup, that’s it. Thought you might, err, think you… had to be naked to cultivate. Yes, that’s what I meant.” Azura nodded vigorously at her own words. Her skin was flushed. She plastered a fake confident smile on her face, her hands on her hips.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Hamal decided he really didn’t want to know what all that was about.

“Okay…” Hamal said. “I do have a question for you. I’m working controlling my attunement, but it’s not responding. How do you control blood?”

“By not being naked or having sex,” Azura said immediately.

“…”

“Ugh, I… would assume that wasn’t a requirement,” Hamal said slowly.

“Oh… of course… that was jest…” Azura said.

“Amusing,” Hamal said flatly.

“Ahem, well to control blood I add some of my own into it. Why don’t you try something similar?”

“My attunement is shadows.”

“Shadows? How are you supposed to use those?” Azura asked.

Hamal spirits fell. “I was hoping you had some ideas.”

“Err, nope.”

Hamal just stared at her. Azura scratched her head then her tail as she fidgeted under his stare.

“You got fleas or something?” Hamal asked. He meant it as a joke due to all her fidgeting. However, Azura eyes went wide in alarm. Did she have fleas?

“NO! I DON’T HAVE FLEAS! Anything you heard indicating otherwise is just lies!”

“Alright.”

What’s up with her today?

“Uh, I have to go,” Azura said sharply. “Just use your own shadow or something.”

Before Hamal could respond she was out the door. Hamal sighed. Azura was weird sometimes. Use his own shadow. What a ridiculous idea. He looked down to the length of darkness extending out from him. Like he could use that. With a flicker of annoyance Hamal sent his ki out to his shadow. He only did it just so he could mock Azura next time he saw her. When his ki touched the darkness his body created, he instantly felt a connection. He paused looking at the darkness as it moved and twisted with a though.

“Well I’ll be damn…”

Azura fled Hamal home. Use his own shadow… what a stupid suggestion. It was all Gerald’s and Elise’s fault! If they had just told her about their relationship today’s events wouldn’t have happened. Now she was all flustered. What she needed now was someone who could make her feel better. Tabatha! Surely the rabbit-kin could improve her mood.

It took nearly an hour to find the rabbit-kin. She had left Azure’s Rest and was running around atop the largest hill near Deepmere. Azura paused as she watched the scene, confused. Tabatha was flapping her arms as she ran around in a circle. Perhaps she could try to find Gwen instead… It however was too late.

“Master!” Tabatha shouted waving to her. Then she ran to her. Azura blinked in surprise. Tabatha appeared to be already proficient in the ki steps technique. The kin was fast. Surprisingly so. It was like the wind itself aided her steps.

“Master! Did you need me?”

“Ah, no. I just thought you might need some help.”

“Of course! How do you make wind with your body?”

Azura looked at her disciple. She desperately tried to think of something clever rather than bodily emission that seemed to be trumpeting in her mind at the question. Make wind… What else was supposed to enter her mind at such a comment!? She looked into Tabatha’s expectant face and knew she had to say something.

“Did you try making some with your ki?”

Tabatha paused tilting her head in consideration. Azura realizing how obvious that statement was took her disciples silence to exit the situation.

“Ah sorry I only have a moment. I’m super busy. Just think about what I said.” Azura took off at full speed.

Why? Why did everything go so wrong today? Azura thought bitterly. First Elise and Gerald, then she gave nothing but bad suggestions to everyone. That was it! She would go home and continue to sulk until the fish was done.

Atop the hill Tabatha watch her master leave still in thought. Use her ki. How brilliant, yet obvious! As expected of her great master. It had taken days to figure out how to cultivate the wind. It wasn’t just the wind but motion and momentum. The air was just a medium. Once she figured that out she could cultivate anywhere. It was slow and she would need to do it often. Perhaps she could learn to passively by cultivating at all times. If she had asked her master earlier she would’ve been much further along. At least good fortune was hers now. If she could cultivate the wind then she could use her ki to make wind. Tabatha focused inward for a moment before exhausting a small portion of her ki to make a gale force wind that knocked several trees over. Tabatha grinned. She had a lot of practice to do.

Azura arrived home to find, not a delectable platter of fish waiting for her, but a large basin with a familiar caustic shampoo nearby. Within a few minutes she was sitting the tub, her clothes set to the side for decontamination.

“I can’t believe I got fleas.”

“Fleas happen,” her mother said as she scrubbed Azura’s tail. “Besides, would I go through all this trouble just to prank you?”

“YES! Yes, you totally would!”

Coralline paused in her scrubbing. “Fair enough. But I’m serious this time.”

“I know,” Azura said as she applied more of the caustic shampoo to the fur on her legs. She paused in her administrations to pluck a dead flea from her fur. The little bastard had already succumbed to the ravages of the shampoo.

“I just don’t understand why I didn’t notice earlier,” Azura said.

“I imagine the little blood suckers can’t penetrate your skin. Your ki reinforce body is probably making them starve to death.”

Azura had a sudden mental image of a flea with a pick-axe over its shoulder. The flea swung down with a mighty blow only to have its whole body reverberate from the strike. Trembling, the flea looked in shock at bent tip of his pick-axe.

Azura chuckled at the mental image.

“You’re thinking strange things again,” her mother accused.

“No I’m not!”

Before the pair could delve any further into that, the door opened and Elise hesitantly walked in. Azura paused in her scrubbing. Today seemed to be riddled with awkward situations. Coralline had no such issues.

“Ah Elise perfect timing. Can you gather all the bed linen together? Then fetch another basin of water for me? I’m afraid we have a flea issue.”

“Oh, um, sure.”

Azura avoided eye contact as Elise went about her duties. Instead, she focused on scrubbing until Elise left their home to get water for her mother’s bath.

“What was that all about?” Coralline asked.

“Umm, nothing,” Azura lied.

“Uh huh.”

“What! I’m telling the truth.”

“You two are always chatty. Something happened.”

Azura sighed. “Well… I went to the forge to help Gerald out and…” Azura was unsure how to finish. Her mother could take it hard if she knew Elise was having that type of relationship.

“Oh! You saw her and Gerald screwing,” Coralline nodded sagely as she added more shampoo to Azura’s head.

“WHAT!? YOU KNEW!?”

“Duh,” Coralline said plucking a barely struggling flea from Azura’s head. She squished the insect before tossing it into a waste bin. “I think almost everyone knows. They aren’t exactly silent.”

“Oh…” Azura said. “I thought you might be upset at the news.”

“Upset? Why would I be upset?”

Azura squirmed. This was distinctly uncomfortable. She hadn’t felt like this since they had the whole sex talk. That was a traumatizing experience she sooner forget.

“Well I don’t know. I just thought you would be.”

“I am familiar with sex Azura. Where do you think you came from?”

“OKAY! I GET IT! Can we just drop it?”

Naturally her mother pounced at the display of weakness, like the predator she was. “OOOOh, sure we can drop it… Did I ever tell you about the time your father had me put a ball gag in his mouth while he wore one of my dresses…”

Azura was too horrified to respond for several minutes as her mother went into details that she refused to commit to memory. Apparently elven perversion had nothing on her family. It wasn’t until her mother mentioned the strap-on she had used on her father that Azura took action.

When Elise returned she found water everywhere as the two splashed each other. To her credit, she only faltered for a moment before joining in on the fun.